Coupons! Coupons?! Coupons?

Are you a "Coupons!, Coupons?! or Coupons?" kind of business?

The Coupons! business can't get enough. Every day they design new discounts and at night they dream of better deals. Their customers are bombarded with coupons - every time you turn around there is a new e-mail with the latest sales and your mailbox is stuffed with little pieces of paper promising to save you. The problem with this style of couponing? Well, if the customer really needs something they will never pay full price. In fact, the customer probably wouldn't pay full price, even if you stopped couponing because the damage done to the brand would be irreversible - no one would think you were worth full-price anymore. Take the craft store, Micheal's, for example - most savvy shoppers know that the 50% off coupon comes along almost every week in the newspaper. These people wouldn't dream of spending $29.95 on that paint set when they could wait for a few days and pay half as much. It doesn't do much for Micheal's brand name - they are just another discount craft store.

The Coupons? business can't even imagine giving a coupon. This business is too good to lower itself to give customers a good deal - ever. They have a brand that is outside the realm of couponing and you're probably going to pay more for their products too. MAC makeup is like this. They don't coupon or have sales or discounts. They just don't. Apple is another company that doesn't offer discounts and they don't have to - people are still buying. If you're this kind of company, though, consider how hard the down economy has been on people. If there was ever a time to discount, now might be that time.

Finally, the Coupons?! business tries to strike a nice balance between the two. Couponing all of the time de-values a company. Most businesses (Not All!) don't want people to view them as a discount shop. And some businesses just can't quite get by without giving a discount from time to time. Besides, sometimes it's nice to let customers get a good deal for your products or services. Most businesses would prefer to strike this balance - give a seasonal discount or an occasional coupon, but try to stay out of the trap of overdoing it.